I mean you can’t get much more Upstate New York then that statement. Or much of the Midwest or for that matter much of rural America with their dairies and dairy stores. The weatherman wants you to know it’s very cold out and it’s only going to get colder as the weekend approaches.
The fact that it is only going to get colder as the week progresses, âď¸ is a good reason for me to ride my mountain bike to work, đ˛ as it might get harder to do next week if it’s even colder then. Then back to busing it both ways next week it seems but maybe the forecast will moderate. It’s just that time of year. Monday though will be a bitch with the cold and snow if I have to wash my clothes at the laundromat via the city bus at 6 AM with the colored and poor and those on the pogey. đ But see if you owned a 20-year old Honda and a plastic house, you wouldn’t have to do either thing. Wasn’t too bad walking over to Stewart’s to get milk, but now I have another plastic milk jug to find a roadside recycling bin đŽ to get rid of it, because they do sort of recycle PET bottles into lumber off of Fuller Road in Colonie.
Pea soup is cooking down on the stove with lots of carrots and peas, and I should also chop up some onions for the mix. đ§âđł Bread is done in the oven, and on the stove top is cornmeal onion carrot pancakes. It’s all about the fiber, it keeps you pooping and fills you up. đŠ Already almost out of carrots, đĽ that 2-lb bag I got from Price Chopper the other day is almost exhausted. Too bad I live in the city snd don’t have a composting toilet, I’d be making some rich shit. đ§ I dropped an ear bud in the pea soup when I was adding make up water this morning but I think it’s still working but I took it out to dry out and now charge.
Kind of crazy how many beans and fiber I can eat these days and digest with no issues. đŠ I realized on Monday into Tuesday, I think I eat nearly two pounds of pinto beans along with other very fiber intensive meals with no gas đ˛ or bad smells. đ I do realize drinking all that apple cider vinegar is more problematic though for my teeth but I love that shit. Between riding in the cold đ´ and a good diet, I do look quite healthy even if my hair gets grayer every day, and my face a bit more wrinkled. But maybe not as much as Pamela Anderson. Yet, at that point in my life, I’m hoping to be well on my way towards buying my own land building my off-grid homestead. đ Rehearsals for retirement is the song, as I study up more about Roth conversions and tax management, IRMMA and RMDs, noting money spend on taxes is money not spend on hogs. đ
Yesterday was pretty uneventful 
but the bike ride in was cold and the rail trail is snowy and a bit rough to ride, but I guess it’s better then Corning’s Hill. Checked for broken spokes, but no issues, I was fairly gentle and the trail is actually pretty well packed with only a few rough spots. I’ll probably do the Rail Trail again today. Sitting at the traffic light last night, 
a big assed F-250 pulled up in the lane next to me and I had to gawk. 
I just like big pickup trucks, I can not tell a lie. 
Not some of those luxury barges though, I’m all about the XL trim, with the old fashioned needle gauges and lots of vinyl everything rather then pho-leather or whatever the crap they make luxury with all those sensors that break. 
Nothing super interesting, built some data frames and pulled some voter files for the research department, and put out whatever fires 
 were happening in the office.
Going to be cold, but at least I don’t have a $1,000 electric bill like that one farmer I follow. đ Hell of it is, he ain’t even dairymen, so no pumps and milk coolers to run. And I bitch about my $120 electric bill because I used the electric blanket too much last month and was home most of the month. Power company likes me, as according to their real-time power monitoring, most of my use is between 5 – 6 AM when I do the most cooking and have the lights on. And that slow and steady draw of the electric blanket. I bet that farmer đ dude heats his house primarily with wood but uses a fair bit of electricity with baseboard heat to take the chill off and it can be really hard and expensive to insulate old farm houses well. The high cost of electricity is one reason I’m less interested in buying a plastic house, especially one I got to drive a F-250 or F-350 to daily, of course I’d probably in that case have a 20-year old Honda Civic. đ My friend with his homestead has sometimes similarly painful electric bills. Grid tied solar helps, but honestly, I’d much rather build or buy small, and be completely grid free heated by wood, as it’s easier to maintain your own equipment rather then pay somebody to keep the lights on. Both off-grid and on-grid systems fail, but failure modes tend to be different.
Tonight marks three weeks from New Years Eve and retirement of Big Red. đť My mechanic friend with a welder, a Chevy buff is still bugging me on when I plan to sell him. I think he’s been eying that lifted truck for some time. First I got to get the SuperDuty and a cap and move camping gear over. đď¸ I guess he can have him, I haven’t decided. I just remember that last trip over Cass Hill, and how wallowly he was towards the end with the frame flexing. I know it could have been fixed, and that would be financially responsible thing to do. But I’m ready for a new rig, so I can travel at least a one or maybe few more summers before those days are gone and a new chapter is opened in my life. đ I often think a lot about the future, even when I know it may not be tomorrow, but time lasts forever, until it ends. I was reading about a friend’s son who I believe had a drug addiction, got clean and got a career and then relapsed and passed away. đ Shit happens, often in the most unexpected time. I’m glad my vices are burning trash, big pickup trucks, dirt roads and dirty old off-grid homesteads raising hogs. Dirty smelly shit, though I guess that occasional weed I smoke is bad as is an occasional drag on a cigarette or beer, and all that apple cider vinegar đ is ruining my teeth. Library books I got out on Hoopla are due this evening, it’s fine I got through most of them. đ But that’s to be expected.
I’ve really been fascinated lately with timber framing, đď¸ the old school method of building houses before nails and 2×4 boards and balloon framing became the norm. It’s been something I follow more and more pages on, maybe because I hate drywall and plastic houses (vinyl siding) so much. Been following a lot of those pages lately, along with cabin builders. I actually was a bit interested in one timber framed homestead that was listed a few years back, building was pretty stripped and rough but nice. Would be been a lot of money though to bring it up to standard. Much of stuff though is big and luxury oriented, đ really what I like is simpler, more of a hunting cabin, not too far from the shed-to-home but maybe with higher quality longer lasting materials. I get the benefit of non-maintance until disposal materials in modern plastic houses, still I just find it so ugly and toxic too. Maybe because I know what plastic shit smells like when you burn it – neighbors years ago burned off the cast-offs when they got their double-wide modular home, and boy did some of those vinyl scrap burn black đĽ in their bonfire. But they were firefighters before the burn ban. đ I finished that book off I had about building hunting lodges, really was just kind of an overview on building practices but had some interesting ideas. Due back today, never did get through a few of the other books I had out of the library. Too bad, I can always get them out again I guess.
Well, the pea soup should be pretty much done at this point once I blend it down,đ˛ I’ll stick the pot out in the cold âď¸ and let it cool down before refigerating it for dinner tonight. Then shower, đż and leave early as I need to go slow on the icy, rough parts of the rail trail and lubricate the chain and parts up before going due to cold and road salt. No wind, đ˛ which will make it less cold but my fingers should be pretty cold at first until I get riding and burning some calories. And on wards. Happy Hump Day folks!
the two projects of interest aren’t going to be up for public comment, so I can be fucking crazy 
and ride my mountain bike on this 13 degree morning to work. 
Hey, my inherited mattresses is better then the one I had a kid, it doesn’t have any springs yet taped over by duck tape.
but I did go out for an evening walk. When I got home from Mom and Dad’s I thought about bike riding, but was feeling lazy and cold, and it felt so good under the heated blanket. 
I read for a while, watched more videos on truck buying, then got up and had some more pinto beans and onions, and saw people were talking about the northern lights, 
and thought I should go out, get some exercise, enjoy the crisp night air smelling like silage from Preska’s dairy and see the stars. Kind of hazy and cloudy though when I walked. It was good though, I’ve been enjoying the evening walk again. Tonight though it will likely be too cold.